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Description
It is called the age of information. Technology rules the world and information means power. But, as history shows, power can lead to destruction, and in this day and age, information in the wrong hands, or information wrongly perceived, can be deadly.
The stock market is fairly unpredictable. If only someone could accurately predict what stock would go up, what would go up, and how much. A lonely computer programmer (his identity never revealed) wrote a program that would keep track of the internet stock exchange and compile that information. The information, combined with a correlation with current events, would then be sorted out by the program and deciphered into a coherent prediction of sorts, of the stock market’s future successes and downfalls. Initially written as something to do, the program consistently predicted wrongly. However, after many years running, the program started to make accurate predictions. The programmer, after watching the program make astounding predictions, took advantage of the situation and became literally rich over night.
But the program did not stop there. It continued to make predictions, even after its programmer shut it off, terminated it. The program manifested itself in the internet and continued to run autonomously of its original computer. The programmer watched the program, now with its own web address, with intense curiosity. It started to predict not only the stock exchange, but flight delays, web site changes, winning lottery numbers, the cost of gasoline among other things. The programmer, after deep consideration and thoughtful studying, declared to the press the program.
At first they didn’t believe him. They called him insane and said his accusations were absurd. After all, it wasn’t widely believed that people could predict the future, let alone a computer. But some, intrigued by what the unknown programmer had said, too watched the program, the program which now called itself Prophet.
The stories spread. People putting stock in the program and making untold money off of its predictions. Prophet started to make headlines. No longer was it seen as a hoax. Across the globe people listened to Prophet and anxiously awaited its next prediction. Time and time again it was right, but still, some didn’t believe it.
Prophet predicted that two airliners would collide in midair over the Atlantic Ocean. At the time predicted, the planes crashed and plummeted into the water. The program had accurately predicted something that seemed so random, so inconceivable that many were scared by it.
Prophet then predicted a virus that would ravage the internet and, as a result, the crashing of the stock marked.
The day after the prediction was made no computer could connect to the internet, not a single computer world-wide and as Prophet said, the stock market crashed. The world was in chaos and, ironically, in awe. The Prophet had the trust of almost everybody on the face of the earth.
People started to say it was sent by God, even a deity itself. Others called it the work of the devil. No matter what anyone said, Prophet was always right; it never made a wrong prediction.
Then Prophet predicted something truly horrible; it predicted war.
The following morning, Iran attacked its neighbors and subsequent fighting broke out all across the Middle East.
The predictions did not get any better. As foretold, the fighting escalated, drawing in numerous nations in a blood-bath that spread as far as Eastern Europe. As the fighting intensified, Prophet made a prediction unlike any it had before.
It predicted the world’s end.
It would come about from the current fighting, from leaders with itchy trigger fingers and nuclear weapons at their disposal. Prophet predicted the end to come in three days time.
Two days later however, the world already lay in ruin. Spurred by the notion that they were to die, the nations of the world took irrational precautions to make sure that their fate would not be fulfilled. Alas, as predicted, by their own hands, the peoples of the earth destroyed themselves. But how much merit was there to the final prophecy? Did a computer program have the power to predict the future, or was it merely an assemblage of metal and plastic? The doomsday prophecy was off by a day, and for the first time Prophet was wrong, but was this intentional? Was everything it said a series of happenchance events, a string of coincidences, or was everything that happened in the few years before the end of the earth a sequence of well calculated moves designed to bring about the doom of the planet?
None of these questions mattered, because when the time came for someone to ponder them, there was nothing left. As the clock clicked over to midnight, the only inhabitant left on the planet-the one who truly knew the answers-turned itself off and once again, in a series of one’s and zero’s, ended all life.

Description
It is called the age of information. Technology rules the world and information means power. But, as history shows, power can lead to destruction, and in this day and age, information in the wrong hands, or information wrongly perceived, can be deadly.
The stock market is fairly unpredictable. If only someone could accurately predict what stock would go up, what would go up, and how much. A lonely computer programmer (his identity never revealed) wrote a program that would keep track of the internet stock exchange and compile that information. The information, combined with a correlation with current events, would then be sorted out by the program and deciphered into a coherent prediction of sorts, of the stock market’s future successes and downfalls. Initially written as something to do, the program consistently predicted wrongly. However, after many years running, the program started to make accurate predictions. The programmer, after watching the program make astounding predictions, took advantage of the situation and became literally rich over night.
But the program did not stop there. It continued to make predictions, even after its programmer shut it off, terminated it. The program manifested itself in the internet and continued to run autonomously of its original computer. The programmer watched the program, now with its own web address, with intense curiosity. It started to predict not only the stock exchange, but flight delays, web site changes, winning lottery numbers, the cost of gasoline among other things. The programmer, after deep consideration and thoughtful studying, declared to the press the program.
At first they didn’t believe him. They called him insane and said his accusations were absurd. After all, it wasn’t widely believed that people could predict the future, let alone a computer. But some, intrigued by what the unknown programmer had said, too watched the program, the program which now called itself Prophet.
The stories spread. People putting stock in the program and making untold money off of its predictions. Prophet started to make headlines. No longer was it seen as a hoax. Across the globe people listened to Prophet and anxiously awaited its next prediction. Time and time again it was right, but still, some didn’t believe it.
Prophet predicted that two airliners would collide in midair over the Atlantic Ocean. At the time predicted, the planes crashed and plummeted into the water. The program had accurately predicted something that seemed so random, so inconceivable that many were scared by it.
Prophet then predicted a virus that would ravage the internet and, as a result, the crashing of the stock marked.
The day after the prediction was made no computer could connect to the internet, not a single computer world-wide and as Prophet said, the stock market crashed. The world was in chaos and, ironically, in awe. The Prophet had the trust of almost everybody on the face of the earth.
People started to say it was sent by God, even a deity itself. Others called it the work of the devil. No matter what anyone said, Prophet was always right; it never made a wrong prediction.
Then Prophet predicted something truly horrible; it predicted war.
The following morning, Iran attacked its neighbors and subsequent fighting broke out all across the Middle East.
The predictions did not get any better. As foretold, the fighting escalated, drawing in numerous nations in a blood-bath that spread as far as Eastern Europe. As the fighting intensified, Prophet made a prediction unlike any it had before.
It predicted the world’s end.
It would come about from the current fighting, from leaders with itchy trigger fingers and nuclear weapons at their disposal. Prophet predicted the end to come in three days time.
Two days later however, the world already lay in ruin. Spurred by the notion that they were to die, the nations of the world took irrational precautions to make sure that their fate would not be fulfilled. Alas, as predicted, by their own hands, the peoples of the earth destroyed themselves. But how much merit was there to the final prophecy? Did a computer program have the power to predict the future, or was it merely an assemblage of metal and plastic? The doomsday prophecy was off by a day, and for the first time Prophet was wrong, but was this intentional? Was everything it said a series of happenchance events, a string of coincidences, or was everything that happened in the few years before the end of the earth a sequence of well calculated moves designed to bring about the doom of the planet?
None of these questions mattered, because when the time came for someone to ponder them, there was nothing left. As the clock clicked over to midnight, the only inhabitant left on the planet-the one who truly knew the answers-turned itself off and once again, in a series of one’s and zero’s, ended all life.